Spring Break in Cape Town!

I am starting my blog as I am trying to recover from our holiday. It has been a long eventful week I will only inform you of the highlights as we packed our week as full as we could. We ended up leaving East London the 9th after class and headed to Port Alfred as Justin had an acquaintance that we were going to stay with. His name was Edward, oh, what a guy. He was so excited about everything and quite the character. He was very helpful in informing us of activities to do on our holiday!
Saturday we finished our drive to Cape Town, around a ten hour drive. Did I mention there was no radio or air conditioning in the car?! And it was a hot one! You really didn’t notice the heat or not having a radio because the garden route was absolutely beautiful (clearing of throat, Dad you would love it! Hint, Hint)! Anyway, we arrived in Cape Town Saturday evening. I think the car ride made us crazy because we decided that we were going to go shark cage diving on Sunday. What was I thinking I am not so sure! I was so exhausted from the drive that I did not have a lot of time to think about it and the tour left at 5:30 am. So we are up and have a 2 hour drive…we finally arrive and are on the boat and at the diving sight. At this point I am somewhat nervous and wondering if we really would see a shark. The assistants on the boat cut up some bait to bait the shark. Not even ten minutes later…there is a shark in sight. YIKES. Our guide told us if we wanted to see the shark in the cage we better start putting our gear on. We were informed that the bait is not fed to the sharks because if the shark gets the bait they will leave. So the assistants would keep and eye on the bait and the shark, pulling the bait away from the shark as well as telling the people in the cage (3 to 5 people at once) to go down and look left, right, or strait forward. So I finally decide to put my wetsuit on and get in the cage otherwise I am afraid I will chicken out. Probably smart just to jump in because the water is FREEZING. I forgot about how cold the water was once the assistant said go down and look left!! Lets just say the whole time I was in the water I was in the fetal position, pushing myself underwater! I was also at the end of the cage and so badly wanted to ask the person next to me if I could switch spots so I could be in the middle! When the shark was on my side of the cage I decided it was about time to get out anyway!! It was about perfect timing because not soon afterwards the shark ended up getting the bait. We did not see him after that! Over all I would say it was a wonderful experience, for me anyway. Poor Katie spent most of the time hanging over the side of the boat.
Other activities we had the chance to do was drive to Cape of Good Hope (the most southern point of SA) as well as Chapman’s peak, they both were absolutely gorgeous! I will post some pics as I took way to many! We also had the chance to take a tour of Robbin Island and it was fabulous. Although there were a few distractions as there was a family who had three children. Lets just say the children were not well behaved as they were running all over the place and yelling in an empty prison! They were still cute though! Maybe I will have a better experience when I go back in June!
We also had the opportunity to take the cableway up Table Mountain! It was the last ride up so we saw the sun set and it was absolutely beautiful, especially with the fog rolling off Table Mountain like a table cloth. Katie and I also witnessed an engagement...it was so adorable and magical how he had set up the proposal! The next day we decided we were going to hike Table Mountain! The trail we took was called Platteklip Gorge. And it was quite the trail! I felt as though I was on a stair stepper for two hours. It was set up as a zig zag climbing stairs! But again it was worth it once we reached the top. A good work out in the legs and ass as well!
Wednesday we started our trip back to East London. We stopped at Montegu where we stayed at an hostel that once use to be horse stables as well as go to natural hot springs, which was nice and relaxing! We than hit the road for Outdshoorn! What a cute town. Katie and I went to a zoo type thing with African animals which was not bad as we had a humorous tour guide. We also had the chance to the Congo Caves, which I believe are the oldest caves in the world; don’t quote me on that though. Our last stop was Tsitsikamma. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and we decided to take another hike to a waterfall which was also beautiful! We finished the hike just in time as it started to rain…so we went back to the hostel and just relaxed and spent time by the fire place. We arrived back in East London on Sunday.
Some news I don’t think I have shared with you is that we have all moved in with a family here in East London. We were attending a Bahai event with Justin and talking about our internship, the university, and where we were living. Well Deana this amazing woman (and she is not amazing because she is letting us live with her for rent free) thought it was ridiculous that we were paying that much money for rent (more than I paid in Mankato) so she told us to move in with her. Katie and I thought it was a joke, but she was serious. So at the beginning of March we moved in with Deana, Ava and Grandma. Ava is Deana’s daughter who is 16 years old and quite the character…she reminds me of my little sister! And Grandma, oh Grandma. She was elsewhere when we moved in but was here when we arrived from Cape Town. I had my backpack on and had just walked through the door, not even having time to take my bag off and she gives me this huge hug and interduced herself as Grandma, I asked if that is what she wanted us to call her and she said yes! To be honest I don’t know her real name! Anyway, Grandma is Persian and speaks Farsee (forgive me for the spelling…this is how it sounds when pronounced) she does understands English but speaks little English. She knows enough to have small conversations with us! But I love talking to her because she so adorable. There will be times when she is in the kitchen preparing a meal or cleaning up and I will ask if she needs help and she occasionally say yes but on other occasions she will say no my dear and give me a hug and a kiss! She is such a doll!
Work is still a wonderful experience although I feel March has been one big holiday! I have a lot of catching up to do! Anyway, I must stop talking and let you get back to what you were previously doing! I hope you are all well and healthy. Take care. Always, Amber